How France 98 Is Playing in Publications Around the Globe:

FRANCE

From L’Equipe, on the ticket scandals:

“In this affair where everything is messed up [the swindlers, the black market, tour operators, federations, etc.], one thing seems evident: Despite the numbers cited here or there, no one knows how many supporters were really fleeced.

“[Thursday] it was 15,000 tickets and more than 3 million francs that were stolen in Paris from an American tour operator. Tomorrow, it will surely be something else. . . .

“Between the lines of all this is the problem of an active black market. When one hears, according to an anecdote reported by a radio station, that a spectator had, for example, traded a ticket for his Golf Cabriolet, one can imagine the extent of this market.”

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From Sud Ouest:

“This is what’s called a Pyrrhic victory. Four goals, a red card for the best player of the bunch [of the world?] and an injury to one of the best forwards. . . .

“[Zinedine] Zidane, veritable geyser of inspiration for the French team, didn’t retain his good conduct lessons. Even as he regaled the 80,000 spectators at the Stade de France with his technical prowess, he committed the unpardonable. Fuad Amin tackled him from behind, but [Zidane] cracked. Instead of crying out his anger, he preferred to retaliate. . . .

“This exclusion ended the wildest hopes of having a great World Cup. Looking at the sanctions enforced against the Dutchman [Patrick] Kluivert and to the Cameroonian [Raymond] Kalla [two-game suspensions], he had to be punished with equal severity.”

GERMANY

Conservative nationwide daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, quoting Austrian Player Toni Polster:

“Of course, I’d like rather to play against Italy with two forward players. But these are the typical personnel discussions, I know them from home. There are eight million inhabitants in Austria, including six million national coaches. If you’d ask them all, we’d have 3.5 million different lineups.”

SOUTH AFRICA

From Johannesburg Star:

“Those who were there [at South Africa’s 1-1 tie with Denmark] will file the experience in the box marked ‘Mandela release/Election Day/Inauguration/Rugby World Cup/African Nations Cup 1996.’ It was special. That’s really the only way to put it. . . . Let’s just say Toulouse restored our pride after Marseille, with a vengeance.”

ENGLAND

From the Mirror in London:

“One of Britain’s most notorious soccer thugs has arrived in France thirsting for trouble.

“Paul Dodd, banned from every ground here, swaggered into a Toulouse bar on Wednesday with a chilling warning.

“He said that if England reaches the semifinal, and the game is in Marseille, he is ready to take revenge on the locals involved in last weekend’s riots.

“Genuine England fans were outraged by his loutish threats in the Frog and Rosbif pub. One said: ‘It made my stomach churn. Most fans were sickened by the rioting. Now he turns up and says there will be more.’ ”

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Correspondents Helene Elliott in Bordeaux, Christian Retzlaff in Berlin, Dean E. Murphy in Johannesburg and Vanora Bennett in London contributed to this report.